Treating rosin.



3: ED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

FRANK E. MABINER, OF GULL POINT, FLORIDA, ASSIGNOR TO THE PENSACOLA TAR & TUBPENTINE COMPANY, OF GULL POINT, FLORIDA, A CORPORATION OF FLORIDA.

TREATING ROSIN.

No Brewing. Original application filed December 23, tion filed April 1, 1914.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, FRANK E. MARINER, a citizen of the United States, residing at Gull Point, in the county of Escambia and State of Florida, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Treating Rosin, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to an improved treatment of rosin or colophony, meaning the residue obtained by distilling turpentine and from which the turpentine is thus separated, for the purpose of obtaining a product, which may properly be termed a rosinoid because of its physical resemblance to rosin, though possessing grease-setting property in an extraordinary degree.

The present application is a division of my application Serial Number 808,486, filed December 23, 1913, which parent application contains a claim broadly covering the specific process claimed herein.

It is the practice in manufacturing axle grease and other similar greases to use cheap petroleum oil set through the medium of a lime soap made by a saponifying rosin oil with milk of lime. This rosin oil is the distillate obtained by distilling rosin at atmos pheric pressure and is known in the art as first-run or kidney oil, and it contains a grease-setting acid value of between 10 and 50 per cent, though this value rarely exceeds 45 per cent. This acid content of rosin oil, which is the portion of the latter that combines with the milk of lime to produce the rosin soap for setting the grease, is generally understood to be abietic acid, notwithstanding the fact that the rosin from which the rosin oil is produced, and which is approximately all abietic acid, will not properly set grease, nor does it have necessary lubricating qualities. It would therefore seem that 1n producing rosin oil by distilling rosin, a rearrangement of its molecular structure takes place, due to the very material decomposition brought about by the heat; and that in the course of this rearrangement the saponifying agent therein, believed to be abietic acid, contained in the resultant rosin oil is rendered a grease-set, though the precise molecular structure of this agent is not known. It being evident, therefore, that the only value of rosin oil as a grease set is in its acid content of about 45 per cent, it follows that the remaining Specification of Letters Patent.

1913. Serial N0. 808.486. Divided and this appiica- Serial No. 828,817.

per cent, or thereabout, of neutral oil is wasted.

By distilling, under a more or less high vacuum, rosin from which the turpentine has been thoroughly extracted by distillation, a peculiar distillate is produced which, as I have discovered, possesses superior grease-setting properties. By distilling such rosin in a vacuum of, say, 22 inches at a temperature between 290 C. and 310 C. the distillate contains an acid value of approximately 90 per cent. and this constitutes approximately 90 per cent. of the rosin treated. This acid, which is apparently an isomer of abietic acid, is probably similar to the acid formed by distilling rosin at atmospheric pressure to produce ordinary rosin oil containing only about 45 per cent. of acid value, as aforesaid. Consequently, about one-half the quantity of my rosinoid product will suffice for the grease-setting purpose in the manufacture of lubricant greases that is required of regular first-run rosin oil.

My improved product, while resembling rosin in appearance, presents the physical differences from the ordinary rosin-product of turpentine-distillation, in being susceptible of chewing like chewing gum, and in remaining solid at ordinary temperatures. To possess this last-named characteristic the abietic acid content should be at least about 80 per cent. However, by agitating it while it is cooling after distillation, whereby it is reduced to the form of crystals, it will remain solid at ordinary atmospheric temperatures even though the abietic acid content be lower than 80 per cent, and this particularly, if from 1 to 2 per cent. of water be added to it while undergoing agitation, to promote the crystallization. This property of remaining solid at ordinary temperatures afltords the advantage of enabling my improved article to be transported, like rosin, in slack cooperage without material or undesirable change in its condition, while rosin oil requires to be shipped in tight and more expensive packages.

* What I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. The process which consists in distilling over under a partial vacuum rosin from which the turpentine has previously been separated, condensing the distillate, and continuing the distillatlon until substantially all the rosin has been distilled over, whereby a grease-set high in ebietic-acid content is produced.

2. The process which consists in distilling over in atvaeuum of approximzttely 22 inches and at a, temperature between 290 C. and 310 C. rosin from which the turpentine has previously been separated condensing the 10 distillate and continuing the distillation until substzintislly all the rosin has been distilled over, lwhereby a grease-set high in abietic-ecid content is produced.

In testimony whereof I afiix my signature in presence of two witnesses FRANK E, MARINER. Witnesses:

NELLDE B. DnAnBonN,

G. FISCHER. 

